Read these stories from our amazing AmeriCorps members and Community School Coordinators!
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Feeling Like a Failure, Until Someone Noticed
My success story for this month would have to be Sean. he is such a great student and I loved working with him and being able to see him grow. Sean was failing at least half of his classes and sluffing school almost every day. I consistently had chats with him about why this was not good for his future and it really seemed to click in his head 3rd term as he did a complete 180 and passed all of his classes. Sean was so eager to tell me about his successes and it was really amazing to see that light switch on and see his mentality change about school. Now Sean is about to end his 4th term with a 4.0 and almost perfect attendance.
Moved and Lost
There is a student who we have been working with intensively since he transferred to our school during term 1. He lost his Dad to suicide about a year earlier and then had to move away from his friends. He has understandably been dealing with a lot of social and emotional issues. His behaviors have caused him to push a lot of people away and frustrated many of his teachers. We became a few of the limited positive connections that he has at the school. We spent a lot of time walking him to his classes to ensure he'd make it, helping him remediate grades, and pulling him into our office to get current in his classes. Although this student still struggles a great deal, he won't head to high school any more credit deficient than he came to us, which is an incredible accomplishment!
Feeling Taken Care Of
We had a big snowstorm and many children at our school were unprepared for the winter weather. I had one family who had some financial troubles come in to pick out coats. The boys lit up when they found the coat they wanted. I let them pick some shoes, beanies, and gloves as well. They walked out with all of their new gear on and they looked so happy. They both gave me a hug and thanked me. It warmed my heart to see them walk out of the school all ready for winter.
Struggling to Come to School
At the beginning of the year, we had a first grader who struggled to come into the school every morning. He only speaks Spanish so I would help the staff communicate with him. That helped me and the student build a relationship and he got to the point where he would be comfortable talking to me. I had parent/teacher meetings with his mom and also built a relationship with her. We worked together on a plan to help motivate the mom and son to come to school every day. When I started working with them the student's attendance was close to 30%. He would only attend school 1-2 days per week. Now he is a regular attendee with 90% attendance.
